The article discusses a recent development in the open-source community, specifically around Redis, a popular in-memory data store. The company behind Redis announced that it would switch its license to a more restrictive one, which led to the creation of a new fork called Valkey. Here are the key points from the article:
Redis Switches Licenses: Redis Inc., the company behind the popular open-source project Redis, announced that it would switch its license from Apache 2.0 to a custom license called the "Redis Source Available License". This change was met with criticism from some in the community, who felt that it would limit access and innovation.
Valkey Fork: In response to the licensing change, a group of developers forked the Redis project to create Valkey. The fork is hosted on GitHub and has gained support from several companies, including AWS, Google, and Microsoft. The Linux Foundation (LF) is also involved in supporting Valkey.
Quick Gathering of Support: The article notes that it’s rare for a fork to gather so much support so quickly. This may be due to the fact that Redis is a widely used project, and many companies have a vested interest in its continued development.
Valkey’s Future Plans: The Valkey team plans to release a compatibility package that will allow users to transition from Redis to Valkey without significant changes. They also aim to improve performance, add new features, and explore using flash storage alongside RAM.
Comparison with Previous Forks: The article notes that previous forks of Redis, such as KeyDB, did not gain the same level of support or attention as Valkey has. This may be due to the fact that Valkey is being hosted by the Linux Foundation and has gained support from several major companies.
Overall, the creation of Valkey represents a significant development in the open-source community, highlighting the tension between commercial interests and the ideals of open-source development. The future plans of Valkey are ambitious, but its success will depend on its ability to maintain momentum and attract new contributors.
